Happy Halloween

I am not a big get-ready-for-Halloween-early person. Actually, I ban the kids from even talking to me about how they want to dress up until two hours before they need to be dressed, because they change their minds until then anyway and because I am a Halloween Grinch.

We did a few fun things, though.

The Saturday before the Saturday before Halloween, while Summer took the ACT, the six other kids and I went to a Halloween party at a park, mostly because they advertised free pumpkins. There was also a free carousel. I like free.




The kids liked the candy. Naomi figured out how to be efficient and eat both her lollipops at the same time.

Gwen wanted nothing more than to climb on instead of go through, the straw maze, so as they were closing down, I let her.



It was an especially fun day because we went to dinner at the home of some friends from back East who recently moved to our neck of the woods - Parrish and Mindy for those of you who know them. Our kids really like their kids. After we left, Heather said being at their house was the best day of her life.

The Monday before the big day, we planned on carving pumpkins for FHE. Rachel's friend from school had never in her life carved a pumpkin, so she joined us for the festivities.




Last night, we went to the Trunk or Treat at church. Michael was a farmer and Naomi was a princess, and is wearing our home teacher's wife's sweater, because she was so cold.

Kelly was a pioneer and Gwen was another farmer. We have a sort of fascination with overalls going among the younger set around here.

My costume was a glow in the dark fimo clay mustache necklace because I like any excuse to make jewelry (even cheesy-when-will-I-ever-wear-this-again-jewelry).

Today, we finished off the candy and cake and cookies and brownies (from the cake walk) for lunch. Woo hoo!

Cousins!

We love Will, Cynthia and their kids. They came to visit a couple of weeks ago - lucky us!

We went to the beach with them and saw some amazing tide pools. I'll post pictures when I find the beach camera :(





Three teenagers in one twin bed...

...and Uncle Will picking Michael up by the ears!

Birthday Boy

Happy Birthday Michael!

Our big boy is getting bigger. He turned six this past week.

One of the fun things we did was to go to the puppy store at the mall and play with a dachshund.

Michael wanted fish tacos for dinner. While I was shopping for some cilantro, I noticed the last few artichokes of the year, looking so sad and alone, I had to take one home (the kids wished I felt the same way about the dog). Actually, I bought one because they are Michael's favorite vegetable. Isn't he an interesting kid?

He is so interesting that he wanted chocolate covered strawberries and carrot cake with pineapple cream cheese frosting. It was a yummier combination than it sounds like :)

We sure love our Michael :)

Cheesy

Sometimes, when the kids complain of hunger after they have brushed their teeth, we give them aged cheese, which is something their dentist recommended. The other night, Rachel brought everyone their cheddar and Michael got a little bit silly with his. I was getting ready for bed when he called for me to come see his mustache! Funny kid :)

I thought...

...it was kind of funny today when the Sunday School roll went around the room.

It came with a pen from a Vegas casino to mark our attendance :)

Grumpy

I was grumpy last night. I went shopping at Costco, Winco and Walmart. I go to Costco a lot, but the other two aren't my usual stops, they just were on the way to other places I was going. I spent more than $300. Ugh. Now I feel like telling everyone, "Let's just look at the food. It's too expensive to eat."

Fat chance on that, though. Everyone is happy to have a full fridge and cupboards again. We ran out of chocolate chips the week before for the first time in years (!) and Summer told me that she thought she was going to die without chocolate chips in the house. I guess I went shopping in the nick of time.

I feel the same way after I get all caught up on laundry. I get the urge to tell everyone, "Let's just stay home and be naked for a week so that all the laundry stays done for a while." They just roll their eyes.

Michael-angelo

Okay, the title of the post may be extreme, but I thought this snail on a chain that Michael made last night out of polymer clay was really nifty.

The links of the chain are all separate and move around...

Toes!

Amanda sent us a bunch of line art nail polish - so fun!!! Thanks, my dear :)

I painted Kelly's (yellow with four leaf clovers), Naomi's (pink with flowers - what else?) and even Michael's (glow in the dark octopuses) toes.

Michael's were kind of hard to paint because on one toe, he only has half a toenail and on the other, only two thirds, thanks to some unfortunate canned-goods-on-the-feet accidents a couple of months ago!

To see how I painted my own toes with the polish Mandy sent, go to my other blog...

General Conference

Some of my favorite quotes (I hope they aren't misquotes) from General Conference today. Okay, from the first session. Apparently I misplaced my pencil during the second session.

"What we want them (children) to know five years from now needs to be part of our conversation with them today.." - Rosemary M. Wixom

"A teacher's attitude is not taught, it is caught." - David M. McConkie

"To strengthen our relationship with heavenly Father we need to spend time with Him alone." - President Dieter F. Uchtdorf (I think)

What were your favorites quotes or talks?

Is there anything we can do about that?

Gwen is eleven and at the doorway to the change from childhood to adulthood. She is holding on to the frame with both hands, but it isn't working.

She was disappointed when I told her that the time had come for her to join the ranks of family members who have their own deodorant, but that wasn't the worst of it. She got a teeny tiny pimple the other day.

When I told her it was just because she was getting closer to puberty, she moaned and asked, "Isn't there anything we can do to stop puberty?"

Sorry, sweetie!

Embroidered Adornment

Summer saw some jewelry that she liked, a while ago. I looked at it and said, "You could make that." Over the next couple of months I gathered supplies for her.

The little frames came in a package of two, so I also made a necklace.

Summer's (which I think is about 17x more nifty than mine) has a mustache, bow tie and monocle, and is longer. Mine is just an "A", but it was fun embroidering with beads. It's something I'd never tried before.

After I cropped the picture to put it on the blog, I was messing around with PhotoFiltre.

Here are a few more versions, just for fun :)